The War Machines (TV story)
The War Machines 'is the tenth and final serial of the third season of ''Doctor Who. It was written by Ian Stuart Black, directed by Michael Ferguson and featured William Hartnell as the First Doctor and Jackie Lane as Dodo Chaplet. Overview To be added Synopsis The TARDIS lands in London, 1966, where the Doctor and Dodo visit the recently opened Post Office Tower. At it's top, they discover a brilliant new problem-solving super-computer - the Will Operating Thought ANalogue. But when WOTAN decides that it should rule the world, the Doctor is the only person who can stop it's rampaging War Machines from destroying London. Luckily, he has the help of a young secretary named Polly and a sailor called Ben... Plot Episode 1 The TARDIS lands on the curve of a London street; the Doctor and Dodo step out of it and the Doctor places an 'Out of Order' sign on the door to dissuade any policemen. While Dodo finds the idea of policemen flying off in it highly amusing, the Doctor spots the recently-complete Post Office Tower in the distance. While Dodo is unsuspecting, the Doctor gets riled and excited by it and they go off to investigate it. Inside the building, a scientist named Professor Brett works alongside his assistant Polly when the Doctor and Dodo are brought into the room by Major Green, whom the Doctor had told he was a computer expert. Upon entering, the Doctor is highly intrigued a large computer system Brett developed known as WOTAN, which is being prepared to be unveiled publicly. The Doctor is dubious that Brett has successfully created an independently-thinking machine incapable of error and tests it for himself, when it provides the correct answer the mathematical question he input. Dodo attempts it as well, asking it what TARDIS stood for, and it provides, to her astonishment, the correct answer again. Dodo starts to experience a strange feeling in her ears so Polly sits her down and Brett asks her to look after her. When Dodo asks after the most popular local nightclub, Polly takes her to the Inferno, where they are warmly greeted by the barmaid Kitty. Telling them of a sailor that frequents the club in a perpetually glum mood, she asks Polly and Dodo to cheer him up. When he arrives, they introduce themselves, but the sailor is still unenthused to engage with them, so they decide to leave him. As Polly walks away, however, she is harassed by one of the club's patrons and the sailor jumps to her defence, knocking him over and prevailing over him in a fist fight. After this, he finally gives Dodo his name as Ben Jackson. Elsewhere, the Doctor makes his way to the building house the Royal Scientific Club, where WOTAN is presented to a number of journalists and Sir Charles Summers pitches it's potential to them. The journalists argue that WOTAN's use may prove risky, but Summers manages to deflect their questions and queries as speculation. At the Post Office Tower, Brett prepares to leave but begins to suspect that someone may be lurking around and watching him, but dismisses it as fatigued paranoia. After he sends Major Green away, however, he appears to come under some kind of mesmeric influence. Back in the Inferno, Polly, Ben and Dodo have a good time but Dodo starts experiencing the same unusual hum in her head. Meanwhile, as Summers disbands the reports, Brett storms in and asks to speak to Professor Krimpton as a matter of urgency, refusing to make any comment to the reporters. As the room clears, Summer greets the Doctor, who explains that Krimpton is the foremost expert in electronics and they both start to suspect from this that there may be something wrong with WOTAN. Back in the Tower, Major Green goes to look for Brett when he is also drawn under WOTAN's mind control and it gives him a mental order to call the Inferno and summon Dodo to the Tower. Opening the communications, Green places Dodo under the mind control over the phone and summons her to it. Brett brings Krimpton to the top of the tower and he is also placed under WOTAN's influence. The Doctor arrives at the Inferno looking for Dodo, when Polly tells him that she's gone missing, concerning him. Dodo enters the top of the Post Office Tower and WOTAN gives her it's orders: "Doctor Who is Required". Episode 2 Dodo goes off to bring the Doctor to the Tower while the controlled Brett, Green and Krimpton prepare for the dispatch of WOTAN across London (followed by Washington and Moscow), when it orders a number of War Machines to be constructed. Brett sends Green to select the locations, Krimpton to supervise electronics while he will oversee the construction. As the Doctor, Polly and Ben wonder how to find Dodo, she arrives at the Inferno as Kitty closes up and pretends that she'd been visiting some friends and lost track of time. Heading off to speak to Summers, Ben goes off the fetch the Doctor a taxi. Dodo attempts to lure the Doctor over to where some more of WOTAN's servants hide and wait to chloroform him, but Ben manages to hail a taxi beforehand in which she, the Doctor and Polly depart. A little while later, Brett heads over to oversee the War Machines' construction in a nearby warehouse. A homeless man who had planned to spend the night there wanders in and stumbles upon the operation and overhears the workmen's orders but is detected and killed before he can escape. As Brett orders the men to continue working, he walks away from a completed War Machine body numbered '9'. In Summers' home the following morning, the Doctor looks over a newspaper article covering the man's death, when Summers mentions a pair of RSC members who had both handed in their resignations and disappeared without trace. Polly arrives at Summers' house, having been sent there by Green, when Dodo arrives after her, still acting peculiarly. She suggests going over to speak to Brett and the Doctor opts to call ahead instead; when he calls the Tower, Brett opens the line to WOTAN and it tries to assert it's influence over him and it seriously disorients him. Believing the Doctor to be under WOTAN's control now, Dodo tells him it's plans, revealing herself to be under it's control as well. However, the Doctor isn't brainwashed by the machine and realises that a great threat is now at work. When Dodo tries to leave, the Doctor realises that she's been placed under it's mesmeric control and manages to break it's hold over her through the use of counter-hypnosis. Summers offers to send Dodo to stay with his wife in the country while she recuperates. At the warehouse, the manufacture of the War Machines continues to undergo significant progress. Green arrives at the warehouse for the manoeuvrability test of one of the War Machines and orders it's weapons to be tested. WOTAN is displeased that the Doctor hasn't been brought to it and orders Brett and Krimpton to see to it themselves. Just then, Polly arrives at the Tower to speak to Brett when she is backed into a corner by WOTAN's drones. Ben comes to find the Doctor at Summers house, concerned for Polly as she had not kept a date with him. Believing Polly to be in danger, the Doctor sends Ben to investigate the area where the homeless man had been killed. When he arrives outside the Inferno, Ben wanders into the warehouse to find one of the War Machines having been fully completed and being tested. As he tries to leave, his exit is blocked off by the War Machine and it closes in on him. Episode 3 The Machine suddenly suffers a malfunction, giving Ben the chance to get away from the machine. Green examines it's alarm and realises that and intruder is present and orders the men to search for him. Getting out of the warehouse, Ben runs into a brainwashed Polly; under WOTAN's control, she refuses to move and instead locks Ben inside. He struggles with her to try and get himself free, but he is soon caught; he pleads with Polly to go and get the Doctor but she doesn't hear him. Back at Summers' house, the Doctor is concerned by Ben's lengthly absence and suspects that he may be in trouble; however, Summers isn't convinced and thinks more evidence is needed for the Doctor to act on it. In the warehouse, Ben tries to get through the Green and the workmen when the hypnotised Polly comes forth with orders to spare Ben in order to have him work. In the Post Office Tower, Krimpton and Brett program the War Machines on WOTAN's orders to destroy any humans that stand in their way and take over all areas of human authority. While Ben and Polly work, Ben tries to get to the root of WOTAN's plan as the work force readies all the arms of the War Machines ready for deployment. Ben quickly sneaks away; he is initially spotted by Polly as he leaves, but she does nothing to stop him leaving. He rushes to the front entrance and manages to break out when he hurries over the Summers' house and tells the Doctor everything he saw. Green confronts Polly about letting Ben get away, when WOTAN's influence over her starts to wain and Green orders her back to the Tower for punishment. Summers is highly skeptical of Ben's claims but the Doctor believes him and suggests that destroying the War Machines isn't a practical idea, instead suggesting that WOTAN be put out of action to stop the Machines. Nevertheless, Summers calls the Ministry of Defence, who agrees to have military stationed around the warehouse on the off chance that the War Machines are too great an enemy for law enforcement to deal with. When the army arrive, soldiers are positioned all around the warehouse and Summers orders them to advance on the operation site. Inside the warehouse, Green detects the soldiers approaching and readies the Machines against them. In spite of the army's best efforts, the firepower of the War Machines is too great and a large number of soldiers are forced to retreat in the ensuing firefight when they discover that their weapons are useless against them. The Doctor and Ben arrive outside the warehouse as the soldiers fall back and the War Machines follow them. The soldiers outside find their arms as useless and are left with no choice but to pull out. As the army, Ben and Summers move away from it, the Doctor instead walks forward and stands his ground against it. Episode 4 Ben tries to get the Doctor to fall back, but he remains stoically stood in place. The Machine first seems not to acknowledge him, moving around him and then coming to a sudden stop when it appears it's about to attack him. Public broadcasts are made informing people of the potential threat on any more War Machine attacks in the next twenty-four hours. The Doctor and Summers deduce to the Minister of Defence that the War Machine was called into action before it was ready and thus resulted in it's breakdown. Elsewhere, Brett orders for the other War Machines to be put into operation, as they had been completed. Ben searches the warehouse but finds no sign of Polly so he decides to go and look for her himself while the Doctor is distracted examining the War Machine. The Doctor finds from his check over that another eleven War Machines are being readied for deployment at 12pm. Meanwhile, the War Machines being readied soon start to ignoring the orders given to them by Brett and kill their operators. The soldiers bring Green over after WOTAN's control over him is broken and the Doctor has him seen to. Now certain that the War Machines is being controlled from the Post Office Tower, the Doctor insists that the War Machines can only be disabled by halting WOTAN's control. While he, Ben and Summers work out a plan of action, other War Machines are reported in the streets creating chaos. With that, the Doctor suspects that the only way to take out the War Machines is to capture one. Polly returns to the Post Office Tower where she is given another job by Krimpton. The Doctor orders the army to block off the road the War Machine is heading down, so it would be funnelled into a small area for his trap to work. Arriving at the operation site, the Doctor draws up a diagram that involves drawing the Machine into a square of cable, when Ben would connect the fourth cable completing the box, thus trapping it in an electromagnetic field and breaking it's connection to WOTAN. Everybody takes position as the War Machine approaches; when it's inside the area of the square, Ben connects the fourth cable and the electromagnetic field is switched on, confusing the machine and keeping it trapped in it's barriers, giving the Doctor the chance to get inside and shut it down. After examining and altering the Machine, the Doctor reprograms it to work against WOTAN and reengages it. After he gives it until noon to stop WOTAN, Ben hurries over the Post Office Tower against his wishes to rescue Polly. Brett and Krimpton see the rouge machine coming from the Tower and prepare to defend against it. The Doctor explains to Summers that if his Machine can destroy WOTAN, then all the people under it's influence would be released. Ben breaks into the Tower and drags Polly from the control room just as the War Machine breaks in, kills Krimpton and destroyed WOTAN, breaking it's hold on Brett. The Doctor, Summers and the Minister arrive at the Tower after the machine's destruction and vanishes after informing Summers that the threat is over. Later, the Doctor waits outside the TARDIS for Dodo when Ben and Polly rush up to him to say their farewells. Polly gives him a message from Summers that Dodo is now feeling better and has decided to stay in London. As he disappears into the TARDIS, Ben remembers a key dropped from the Doctor's cloak and they go to return it. Using the key, they both step inside the TARDIS as it dematerialises. Cast * Dr. Who - William Hartnell * Dodo Chaplet - Jackie Lane * Ben Jackson - Michael Craze * Polly - Anneke Wills * Major Green - Alan Curtis * Professor Brett - John Harvey * Kitty - Sandra Bryant * Flash - Ewan Proctor * Sir Charles Summer - William Mervyn * Professor Krimpton - John Cater * Roy Stone - Ric Felgate * Interviewer - John Doye * Worker - Desmond Cullum-Jones * Worker - Eddie Davis * Tramp - Roy Godfrey * Taxi-driver - Michael Rathborne * Machine Operator - Gerald Taylor * Captain - John Rolfe * Sergeant - John Boyd-Brent * Corporal - Frank Jarvis * Soldier - Robin Dawson * Television Newsreader - Kenneth Kendall * The Minister - George Cross * Garage Mechanic - Edward Colliver * Man in telephone box - John Slavid * Radio Announcer - Dwight Whylie * US Correspondent - Carl Conway * The Voice of WOTAN - Gerald Taylor * and WOTAN Crew * Assistant Floor Manager - Lovett Bickford, Margot Hayhoe * Costumes - Daphne Dare, Barbara Lane * Designer - Raymond London * Film Cameraman - Alan Jonas * Film Editor - Eric Mival * Make-Up - Sonia Markham * Producer - Innes Lloyd * Production Assistant - Snowy White * Script Editor - Gerry Davis * Special Sounds - Brian Hodgson * Studio Lighting - George Summers * Studio Sound - David Hughes * Theme Arrangement - Delia Derbyshire * Title Music - Ron Grainer References To be added Story notes To be added Broadcast & Ratings Continuity To be added Home video and audio releases To be added External Links * Official ''The War Machines'' page on '''Doctor Who Website